Some of Obama's Friends , page 1

For the record, before I even start in on this, I am a white male under 30 who considers himself to be a moderate and an independent and who has an inherent distrust of politicians and people in general. I have made no solid decision on how I'll place my vote in the coming election, and it's entirely possible that I'll choose to toss my vote for a third party candidate.

Have you also taken a look at the donors, friends, and faults of Hillary Clinton and John McCain? Check out their staff too. It's not as if they're associated only with angels.

The really unfortunate thing that I've come to realize is that every presidential race always boils down to "choosing between fat and ugly," as my best friend would say.

There is no such thing as a perfect man or woman with only perfect friends. Look deep enough into any candidate and you'll find behaviors, qualities, and relationships that are not in keeping with the ideals that we want for our leaders. This is because our leaders are (perhaps unfortunately) human, and humans don't make it through life without getting their feet dirty.

I'm not trying to be an apologist or anything, but there are some really bizarre statements in a couple of these posts. First, white people are not going to vote for Obama so that they don't appear racist. That's just silly. White people will vote for whichever candidate they want to vote for, and if they don't want to appear racist, then they'll just *lie* about how they placed their vote if anyone asks. Second, equating Obama's relationship with his pastor to Nazis denying knowledge of the holocaust is so over the top that I probably shouldn't even comment on it... It's an incredibly offensive suggestion and I find it difficult to think that a person would actually believe that. Can we ever have ANY conversation without mentioning Hitler or the Nazis?

To think that Obama is untouchable is myopic as well. Again, he's human. All humans have done *something* wrong or questionable. The very fact that this thread exists illustrates that Obama has his issues and that people are discussing them. If he makes it into the big event, make no mistake about it: bad things will bubble up. The GOP machine is currently just relaxing and allowing the Clinton and Obama camps to beat each other up. McCain doesn't really have to do anything but sit silently until after the Democratic convention. After that, expect to see a lot of heat put on the Democratic candidate, regardless of who it is.

Politicians cannot be trusted. I repeat, politicians cannot be trusted. Obama, Clinton, McCain... It doesn't matter who you want to dissect, you'll find something disagreeable and dirty about all of them.

/tn.